


Just Lucky, I Guess

by 35-leukothea (35_leukothea)



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, harurin - Freeform, rinharu - Freeform, sharkbait - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 11:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4177821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/35_leukothea/pseuds/35-leukothea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru meets Rin on something of a fluke, they both proceed to realize they have no idea how to handle each other, and everything is Nagisa's fault some way or another. (Gou helps, though.)</p><p>Alternately titled: <i>Free Hugs</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 渚のせい

**Author's Note:**

> SORRY oh my god I just rewatched the second season and then I saw [this](http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/122065749069/imagine-a-walking-around-with-a-free-hugs-sign-b) prompt and I just _had_ to
> 
> 僕はまだ日本語があんまり上手ではないから、ごめん。

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Nagisa no sei._  
>  Because of Nagisa.

Everything was always Nagisa's fault.

That was one of Haru's life mottos. Pretty much anything could be blamed on Nagisa, no matter how irrelevant or ridiculous it was. Indeed, it had become so ordinary to point to Nagisa as the explanation for improbable circumstances (he was obviously the reason that a crow had stolen the tire valve caps off Rei's bike, for one) that Haru and his friends had almost forgotten how much trouble the little first-year actually got into.

This time, it really was Nagisa's fault, and it was his fault on many different levels. Were it not for him, Haru would not be standing alone on the side of the somewhat busy street during the festival right now, bored out of his mind and holding a crude cardboard sign with "Free hugs!!" scrawled on it in Sharpie. But he was, and Makoto wasn't even there to keep him company while he waited. Then again, he was a little angry at Makoto, too. It had been Nagisa's idea to do this dumb hug thing, but it was Makoto who forced him to come along.

"Nagisa and Rei and I are all going," he had said. "It's a festival, it'll be fun. But there won't be a whole lot of people at this one, I don't think. And besides, you should get out of the house for at least a few hours. You've probably been sitting in the bathtub all day."

"I don't want to," Haru replied flatly.

"Haru-chan, you're coming."

"No."  _And don't call me that._

" _Haru_." Makoto gave him A Look. "We won't even be there that long."

Haru had since forgotten the rest of the argument, but he knew there had been much more protesting on his part than there was demanding on Makoto's, so he really had no idea how he'd ever been forced to go at all. And Makoto wasn't even here now! Ren and Ran had insisted he show them around the moment they arrived, and knowing the twins, they wouldn't be back for a while.

So, yeah, maybe it wasn't  _entirely_ Nagisa's fault. But still mostly, because they hadn't been there fifteen minutes when Nagisa suddenly got distracted by something shiny, shoved his sign into Haru's hands, and dragged Rei off to have  _fun_.

And that was the story of how all his friends abandoned him.

At first, Haru was just planning on leaving, but he knew that would make Makoto angry. No, not angry—Makoto didn't get angry. It might make him kind of sad, though, and nobody liked when Makoto was sad, especially not Haru. Nagisa would probably be cross with him too, but he never stayed cross about anything for long.

 _Well_ , Haru thought at first,  _I don't care if they'll be miffed. I'm already miffed. I've been miffed. I'm going to leave._ And he was about to do just that when a little girl, who couldn't have been older than seven or eight, dashed up to him and positively threw herself at him.

 _Huh?_ He glanced down at her, frowning slightly. She was wearing a well cared-for kimono with bright yellow flowers on it that matched the ones tied in her shiny black hair, and looked absolutely delighted at life right about now.

"Thank you for the hug, oniisan!" the girl said happily, then ran back to her mother, who gave a sheepish laugh.

"Yuzu, you should've asked first!" she scolded gently, then turned to Haru. "I'm sorry if she scared you. She has a habit of doing that sort of thing."

"It's okay," he said with a shrug. "You're welcome, Yuzu-chan."

"Have fun at the festival, oniisan!" Yuzu waved goodbye to him as she and her mother began to walk down the busy avenue again. Haru gave a halfhearted wave in return, but said nothing.

Well, that hadn't been so bad. 

He still wanted to leave, though.

"Yo, Haru!"

He groaned audibly and turned towards the sound of the voice. "What?"

Makoto was waving at him from a booth a short way's down the street with Ran tugging on his other sleeve and a silly grin on his face. "Sorry these two abducted me!" he called. "I'll be back soon!"

"No, you won't," said Ren immediately, "we need you. Why can't Haru just come with us?"

"Because he's holding onto something for Nagisa right now and Nagisa needs to know where he is for when he gets back."

"That's not a very good reason."

"I agree," input Haru, too quietly to be heard.

Makoto couldn't reply, though, just shouted a hasty goodbye, because his siblings were already yanking him away to another game or food stand or any number of _fun_ things.

Now Haru  _really_ couldn't leave. There went any plans of escape. He huffed, rubbed his eyes, and accepted his fate. He would just have to rot here. Alone. With absolutely nothing to do. He was looking forward to guilt-tripping the others when they got back. For now, though, he watched the crowd.

It wasn't that interesting to watch people go about their business here, but it was something. He saw some sulky kids and empathized strongly; looked on as a dog and a neighborhood stray cat played together and accidentally tripped a baby, which promptly began to bawl; got hugged by a couple random people, which maybe wasn't horrible; and watched a boy about his age with curious dark red hair ignore an onslaught of ill-tempered remarks from a girl with similar features. She must've been his sister. Fraternal twins, maybe, like Ran and Ren? No, the height gap was too great for them to be twins.  _Although that is the definition of fraternal, isn't it?_  He shook his head. Maybe that was something else. Rei would know— _if_ Rei were here, of course. Haru scowled, forced thoughts of the others out of his mind, and went back to watching the red-haired siblings.

The boy looked even more unhappy than Haru felt, but he didn't seem pissed or resentful so much as downright glum. Unadulterated melancholy was not an emotion Haru was familiar with, but he had no other idea how to describe the expression on the boy's face. He just looked sad. It made Haru feel uncomfortable. The two siblings stopped to sit at a bench several meters to his side, and he looked away for a moment.

"—ought you here to have  _fun_ , oniichan, not to mope," sighed the girl, sounding weary, probably from arguing so much. "You can at least pretend."

"Easy for you to say."

"Come on, please? At least come get some food with me or something. Mom isn't making dinner for everyone tonight, she thinks we're eating out."

The boy didn't respond, just stood up, put his hands in his pockets, and started meandering along again. His sister followed him, and for a little while, Haru lost track of them amongst the other festival-goers. He couldn't forget that boy's face, though. Such a blatant display of emotion. He looked so  _sad_.

 _You know,_ Haru thought vaguely,  _it would be really great if someone came and got me now._

Nobody did, of course. He inwardly cursed Nagisa. This was all his fault.

The siblings were going at it again. He could hear them. The boy was mad, now, and his voice was raised but strained, like he was trying with all his might not to make a scene. His sister's voice was lower, and she spoke calmly. She seemed familiar with the situation. After a few tense moments, the boy cooled down again. It occurred to Haru that he had no idea what time it was. Later in the evening, now. Maybe eight. He wanted to go home. He might as well just leave. He doubted Makoto would be able to come back for him, or Nagisa for his dumb sign—

_Wha—?_

He stumbled a step backwards, taken by surprise as he was abruptly enveloped by a strong pair of arms in what could be described less as a hug and more as a sort of tackle. Haru glanced up and saw a head of dark red hair— _that boy? Why...?_

He was an inch or so taller than Haru, he realized now, and smelled familiar. Like chlorine. Haru liked that smell. What he did not like was how the boy's distress was practically emanating from him like radiation waves and working its way into Haru, as if anxiety were contagious. His gloom was even more powerful now that he was standing right here. Haru put an arm around the other and lightly rubbed his shoulder, in what his mind was definitely a hug, but to his dismay, a split-second later, the boy made an awkward guttural noise and stepped back, covering his mouth. His eyes, a crimson similar to his hair, looked horrified.

Haru just looked at him.  _Is he crying?_

He didn't get the chance to really tell, though, because a moment later, the boy turned and, rather unceremoniously, ran away. His sister barely spared Haru a glance before chasing after him, and suddenly, the escapade was over. For a minute or two, Haru simply stood there, staring in the direction the siblings had run off to.

He decided that was quite enough excitement for one day.

 

* * *

 

"Oniichan! O _nii_ chan!"

No answer.

Gou huffed, vexed, as she whirled around, looking for the direction her brother had run off in. He was much too fast for her, not to mention about half a foot taller. She could barely keep up with him when they were walking. The festival lights were only a little more than a block behind her, but the evening sun was dying fast and the street lamps weren't in the best condition. In half an hour it'd be dark, and their mother would want them home, even if only to check in. She took out her phone and dialed her brother's number, knowing he wouldn't answer, and kicked at rocks while she waited. "Rin, you dumbass _aniki_..."

_The number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable, please try—_

"Selfish piece of shit," she muttered, not really meaning it but angry just the same. Rin had something of a love-hate relationship with his cell phone; if she'd received an error message, he probably had it on airplane mode, for whatever reason. He hated the buzzing and the noise-making. Well, couldn't he just turn it on silent?

"Yeah, but then I wouldn't know if someone tried to call me or anything," he had explained the first time she asked. "I always have it face-down, it's distracting when it lights up all the time."

"But then, if you wanted to know, you'd let it make noise," Gou had replied reasonably. She was jealous that her older brother got a cell phone and she didn't. He wasn't even using it properly! He might as well just turn it off. "If they get an error message, they'll think something's broken. Or that you've moved to the southern hemisphere or something."

"Yes," Rin agreed, "and therefore they won't think I'm ignoring them. Which I might be."

"Oniichan, you overcomplicate everything."

He laughed. "Gou, have you met yourself?"

She sniffed disdainfully and turned away. "I haven't the faintest idea what you mean."

He had reached out and ruffled her hair then, and she smacked him away. Gou sighed. The only thing ruffling her hair right now was evening bugs. She’d probably be bit to death come morning.

_ Bzzt. _

She gasped and nearly dropped her phone. A text? Had he decided to cooperate?

> _ From: Rin_
> 
> east park

She stared at this message for a good five seconds, perplexed. How on earth had he gotten that far that quickly? He should’ve gone into cross country instead of swimming. She shrugged and started off towards the park, a walk which took her, at least, about ten minutes. She was beginning to shiver a bit, even though she had a jacket, and was glad when she reached the park. Maybe they could make this as low-drama as possible and go home soon. They certainly weren't going back to the festival.

"Oniichan?" she called out softly as she walked past the playground and uphill towards the park garden, straining her eyes in the dark. "Rin-niichan?"

"Gou?"

She sighed in relief—for a moment there, she'd almost been afraid he'd led her on some wild goose chase. She sat next to him on the park bench and crossed her arms. "You're like a five-year-old."

He stared into his lap. "Sorry."

She wanted to just say thank you, or something equally curt and discussion-ending, but she couldn't bring herself not to tell him he was forgiven, as always. "It's fine," she said airily. "I guess. I could probably apologize, too."

"Especially for that last bit," he muttered.

"Okay, yeah,  _sorry_."

"Why, again, did you think that was a good idea?"

"I don't know! I just saw a guy with a sign. If you're not gonna hug me or Mom you might as well hug a complete stranger."

Rin made a face. "I don't know where you got that logic from, but—"

"I said I was sorry."

He leaned back against the bench and stared up at the dark blue sky, and Gou followed his gaze. It was clear tonight, with a waning moon and a couple noticeable constellations. She could see Leo, and looked for others, but she'd never been as great at stargazing as her parents. The forecast predicted it would rain the next few days, though. She hoped it wouldn't bring the temperature down any further; they'd only just gotten out of the early spring freeze.

"Then we're even," was all Rin said. "You want to go home? I'll make us dinner."

Gou suppressed a smile.  _So, he does feel bad._ "Okay."

They stood and took a shortcut out of the park, through the shrubs and an old gate whose lock had been broken as long as Gou could remember. She shivered and swatted at pesky insects and tripped on her shoelaces a couple times, but the only thing she worried about was trying to keep up with her brother, who kept a fast pace and whistled old pop songs off-key as the two made their way home through the dim electric light.


	2. この寂しさだけで十分

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Kono sabishisa dake de juubun._  
>  I'm lonely enough as it is.

Rin had a strange dream that night, a very long, elaborate one. It wasn't the sort of strange where something fantastic and completely implausible happened, but the kind where it felt so  _normal_ that when you woke up, you felt like you had just begun to dream in the first place.

He woke up twice, though, so that might've explained it.

He didn't usually dream a whole lot, and when he did, it was mostly unmemorable. The ones from when he was little had been more eventful, he remembered, sometimes accompanied by sleepwalking. Gou had been a sleepwalker when she was a kid, too. Maybe it was genetic.

So, he woke up feeling strange. His alarm clock said it was only half past nine, but there was no way he was getting back to sleep after that. One of his windows was open, and he could smell rain, even if it was still dry out. He sighed and rolled over, thinking it looked like it was going to be a dull Saturday.  _Oh, well. So long as it doesn't storm._

Rin was not a huge fan of thunderstorms.

The only places he liked to be during storms were in the shower and at the pool. Distract from water with other water, he guessed. It was too loud in the shower for him to hear the thunder (his family always yelled at him for turning the pressure up too high), and when he was submerged in the pool he could barely hear anything. Gou was the opposite: she was fine with thunder, but hated lightning. Maybe a lot of random things were genetic. Truthfully, he didn't know enough about genetics to tell. He'd taken a short class on it in Australia, but it had been full of technical, science-y terms that he didn't know how to translate, so most of it flew right over his head. There were little square diagrams that worked like multiplication tables and some guy who grew a lot of—what was it again? Peas? He must've not had a real life or something. Rin snorted into his pillow. Imagine hating yourself so much that all you did all day was grow peas. He probably had to eat most of them, too. Disgusting.

It was quarter to ten when Rin decided he couldn't keep his eyes forcibly closed any longer. He got dressed and wandered downstairs to find some sort of breakfast, already having come to terms with the light chastisement he would receive from his mother—undoubtedly, Gou had told her all about yesterday's fiasco earlier this morning when he was asleep. (She was an early riser even during spring break, just out of habit, since she liked to get all her homework done as early as possible.) And sure enough, as soon as he set foot in the kitchen, his mom put down her magazine (an oldish  _Nat Geo_ with an apple on the cover) and began to speak.

"Rin, honey—"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," he interrupted, getting it over with quickly. "I shouldn't have run off."

She stared at him. "What? I was going to ask if you might drop in at the grocery store for me."

Rin blinked, then glanced behind him at Gou, who was lying on the living room couch doing the daily newspaper puzzles, conveniently deaf at the moment. He looked back at his mom, who was frowning suspiciously.

"Oh, uh, sure," he stammered. "I can—I can do that."

She raised an eyebrow. "What's all this about running off?"

He cursed himself silently, and was about to try and avoid the question when Gou jumped in to save his sorry ass.

"You have a very impulsive son, Mother," she said dryly, without looking up from her puzzle. "He does stupid things of little consequence for a living."

Their mom just shook her head and sighed. "I know, Gou," she said. "I suppose it doesn't really matter, does it, if nothing happened."

"No, indeed," agreed Gou, with supreme disinterest and a pointed glance at Rin that told him he owed her for this.

He asked his mother what she wanted from the store, and she gave him a short list of items and more money than he needed and told him to take an umbrella. He hadn't planned to go straight away, but now saw no reason not too. _Might as well_ , he thought, _before it really does begin to rain_. He wolfed down a mostly tasteless yoghurt, grabbed his rain jacket and an umbrella, and dashed out the door.

It was cooler out than had it been the day before, but that wasn't anything surprising. The grocery store was only a seven-minute walk away, but with Rin's pace, he made it easy in five, and spent about as many minutes inside as well (Gou always complained that he did everything too fast or too slow and had no happy medium). He checked how much money he had left, then stopped at a café, where he bought something with ice and too much caffeine ( _typical teenager_ , his mother would say), and the local florist, where he bought a small bunch of white anemones. The cashier there gave him a teasing, knowing look when he bought them, to which Rin replied with a nasty glare and a dark mutter of "you have no idea" in English, just to make him mad. He had to dig a little into his own money for the flowers, but he didn't really care. It was hard to care about stuff like that.

Frankly, it was hard to care about a lot of things, but Rin didn't like to dwell on that.

It had begun to drizzle outside, so he pulled on his hood and headed briskly towards his next destination, which would probably end his gallivanting for the day. It seemed appropriate that it was raining, like he was in some sort of movie. He threw away his drink before heading through the main gate, thinking it'd be ill-mannered to bring it in. Spring flowers were blooming along the cemetery's entrance path, bright and cheery and excited to get out of winter, and Rin thought vaguely that with all this rain, they'd probably freeze to death overnight. He walked much slower here, feeling it would be disrespectful to rush, and kept to the path for as long as he possibly could. He didn't like walking in front of the tombs or over the graves of all the people he didn't know, a qualm that seemed reasonable to him but apparently no one else had. It was just uncomfortable. There was no better way to explain it.

When he stopped in front of his father's grave it was lightly pouring, and he opened his umbrella to keep from getting completely soaked. He set down the groceries, then sat cross-legged in front of the grave, holding the flowers gently in his lap. For a few minutes, he did nothing.

"Hi," he said finally. There was a short pause, as if he were expecting a reply back.

"I'm on spring break now," he continued aimlessly, raising his voice slightly to be heard over the rain. "We're not really doing much. Gou drags me places sometimes, and I swim a lot. That's nothing new."

_One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand..._

"Gou took me to the festival yesterday. It was...interesting." He laughed a little, but it was more of a grimace than anything. "She complains that I never show affection to her or Mom, so she made me hug a stranger. I guess it wasn't horrible...I just wish she hadn't, y'know,  _pushed_ me at him."

_One one thousand, two one thousand..._

"He was nice, though. As in, not mean. He didn’t look at me like I was a freak or like I’d done anything wrong. He just...looked. I liked that a lot, Dad, now that I think about it. I sort of…" He hesitated, unsure of where he was going with this. "...sort of wish I’d talked to him, honestly." 

_ One one thou— _

"I regret that a little. I’m lonely enough as it is, without passing up that sort of opportunity. Yeah, I know, I have Gou, but it's not like I'm only allowed to have one friend or something. Oh, and there's Nitori of course, you know he's nice." Rin actually laughed that time, thinking of a recent incident with the little first-year. "I found out he's a nervous talker at a meet the other day, which was hilarious, and also a little exasperating. He always seemed to know when he really had to stop rambling, though, so he's got at least a little intuition." He took a breath. "You know, it's still so weird being called senpai. The year's mostly over and I'm still not used to it."

_One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand..._

"That boy had pretty eyes, Dad," he said abruptly, surprising himself into another second of silence before he continued. "Blue. They were so calm. _He_ was so calm. I wish I could be that—that placid. Gou said this morning that I'm impulsive for a living. Well, I can't help if I'm anxious all the time. And it's not all the time. Not even most of the time. Just...some of the time."

He sighed and looked at the flowers in his lap. They'd probably be hammered to a pulp by the rain if he left them out right now, but he had to go soon, he thought, or he'd be out when it really started storming—and as if on cue, a deep clap of thunder sounded from the north, and Rin jumped. He swore quietly, apologized, then leaned forward to place the anemones in front of the gravestone and lean the umbrella over the anemones. He was very careful not to actually touch the marble. He knew he'd get wet, and so would the groceries, but he didn't really care. That was less important. And besides, he had a rain jacket and the food was all covered in plastic. It'd be fine.

He stood and bowed to his father, then picked up the groceries, walked composedly out of the cemetery, and ran the rest of the way home.

 

* * *

 

"Rin? Is that you? Where on earth have you been?" 

"Huh?"

His mother gaped at him as he kicked off his shoes and handed her the plastic bags of groceries. "Rin!" she scolded. "You're dripping wet! Didn't I tell you to take an umbrella? Didn't I tell you?" _  
_

"Yeah, yeah, you told me," he muttered, shedding his drenched coat. He figured he'd just go back and get the umbrella later and no one would be the wiser. Undoubtedly, it would still be there tomorrow. Nobody would dare take something off a grave. "I'm sorry if any of the stuff in there is wet, Mom, I just...got sidetracked, is all."

"Yeah, sidetracked through a waterfall, it looks like," she commented in good humor. "Go change before you catch cold."

He apologized again, then took the stairs two at a time (and almost fell flat on his face when another clap of thunder startled him) upstairs to his bedroom, where he immediately stripped and jumped in the shower. 

He stayed there for about a half an hour, which was at least twenty minutes longer than necessary, but he kept waiting to see if the storm would pass, which it didn't. When he finally accepted that it wasn't going to for a while, he decided that he might as well suck it up rather than waste any more water. _It's just noise_ , he reminded himself sternly.  _You're just an idiot and thunder is just noise._ He got out of the shower, got dry, and changed into what his sister called "fake pajamas," which were defined as clothes that could pass for either exercise-wear or sleep-wear depending on the situation.

"Like sweatpants," she'd explained, "or tank tops or gym shorts. People totally sleep in those, even if you're not actually supposed to."

"Wouldn't that make them just pajamas, then?" Rin had asked.

"Well, no, because they give the illusion of being active. Kinda like how being at school makes you feel productive, even when you're not actually doing anything."

He had seen a strong truth in this argument, but refused to admit it.

It was still thundering out, and the rain continued to batter noisily on the rooftop and windows, so when there was a knock on his bedroom door, he didn't hear it until it became less of a knock and more of a hammer.

"Come in," he called from the bathroom, inwardly amused that his sister (it definitely wasn't his mother) had the decency to knock. It was probably only because he'd just been in the shower.

"Well, look who it is," said Gou, waltzing right in and making herself comfortable on Rin's bed. "My crazyass  _aniki_ , back from Atlantis _._ Did  _you_ bring in that enormous rain puddle?"

"It certainly didn't get there by itself," Rin grumbled, wringing out his hair before stepping out of the bathroom. "What do you want, Gou?"

"Is it a crime to want to spend time with my family?" she cried, sounding affronted. "My goodness, you're rude."

"That's me," Rin agreed. "Really, though. Have you just come to yell at me again for doing stupid things?"

Gou huffed and crossed her arms, looking genuine annoyed this time. "It's not my job to  _berate_ you, oniichan," she snapped. "I just want to talk."

He swallowed, feeling bad for having assumed she was going to be angry. With a small "oh," he sat down on the bed next to her, and for an awkward moment, it was silent except for the raging storm outside the walls. There was another crash of thunder, and Rin flinched.

Gou gave a strange laugh. "I forgot about that," she said. "Everyone in this family really hates storms, huh. What do you want to talk about?"

He shot her an exasperated look. "You're the one who came into my room. Didn't you think of something?"

"Oh, no, I just didn't want...well, whatever." She fidgeted and sat up a little straighter, then continued in a very stock, conversational voice. "So, Matsuoka-kun. How is school?"

He snorted and rolled onto his back, half amused and half irritated. "It's quite well, thank you. How is school for you?"

"Nonexistent, at the moment, so I've forgotten everything about it. Oniichan, do you have good friends?"

He instantly sat back up again, frowning. "What do you mean?" he asked, bewildered. "Of course I've got friends. Do you think I haven't got friends?"

"No, nothing like that," she said hastily. "I said  _good_ friends. I never see you hanging out with people at Samezuka."

"I hang out with people," he protested.

"Swimming in the same pool as someone does not count as 'hanging out' with them," Gou informed him. "I've always got your wellbeing on my mind, oniichan. I mean, one of us has to."

"Nitori's my friend," Rin pointed out. "You're my friend."

"Yes, I know," she agreed. "I'm your _best_ friend. But I just was thinking you might like to have more. I'm sure you're plenty busy during school, but it hurts my heart to see you doing _literally nothing_ every single day of break. You're squandering it! You can't just take days off for granted like this."

He gave a disdainful  _hmph_. "I'm not taking them for granted, I just don't have anything to do."

"Exactly! We have to get at least one more fun day in for you before break ends," she decided. "That's what you owe me for this morning. See when Nitori's free, we'll get lunch or something."

"Gou, you've never even met him."

" _That_ , oniichan," she said pointedly, "is what the kids these days call 'making friends.'"

Rin supposed she was right.

 

* * *

 

If there was anything his sister was fond of, it was organizing.

Rin still wasn't entirely sure how she did it, but sure enough, half a week after his detour from the grocery store, he found himself wandering around the market by the beach with Gou and Nitori, who had found more things to talk about than he ever would have imagined. They had bought meat buns and rice crackers from the food stands for lunch, and Rin was more or less following around the other two while he watched the sea and the passersby. He wasn't having a bad time at all, really, having dragged himself out of an emotional slump since the festival, but he still had no idea if what they were doing now had really been Gou's intention. The only thing putting a damper on his quite decent mood was his cold, which he refused to take medicine for out of spite ("typical teenager," his mother had said with a roll of her eyes). The sore throat had gone away quickly, which was his least favorite part, but now he could barely taste or smell for his stuffy nose and was coughing like he'd inhaled pure sawdust. Gou had forced him to wear a mask, but they had somehow run out of normal ones, so he was currently wearing one of hers that allegedly smelled like strawberries. He strongly suspected that she had hidden the plain ones and this was simply an attack on his dignity. Oh, well. At least Nitori hadn't noticed.

They stopped at a bench for a moment to take a rest (the sun was very harsh today), but Rin didn't feel like sitting down. He squinted out at the water, which was a little blinding but pretty all the same, and was content to listen with one ear to the conversation he was apparently part of.

"—isn't that right, Rin-senpai?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah..."

Gou made a frustrated noise and shoved a water bottle at her brother, who opened it and handed it back to her without looking. He was suddenly distracted by something down at the beach—he wasn't sure exactly what had caught his attention, though. He narrowed his eyes and raised his hand up to block out the sun, watching the shoreline.  _It's probably just nothi—_

Oh. No. That was not nothing.

"No fuckin' way," he murmured to himself.

"Huh? Oniichan, nobody likes the mumbling."

He glanced at Gou. "What? Oh, sorry. I didn't say anything."

She shrugged and resumed the conversation. Rin looked back at the beach, wondering if the glaring light had been playing tricks on his eyes, but sure enough, there he was—that boy Gou had forced him to hug. He was with several other people, and looked bored, but he'd looked that way at the festival, too. Maybe that was just his neutral expression. Rin shook his head slightly. What were the chances?

He watched the group go about whatever it was they were doing, intrigued by all the different things going on at such a rapid pace. There was a short blond boy and a taller, dark-haired boy sitting next to each other in the water one minute, then arguing the next, then the blond one was chasing around the boy Rin had hugged, who eventually made his way further up the beach to sit by a tall boy with sandy brown hair, who seemed to not want anything to do with the water at all. There was an interesting dynamic between the four of them, with lots of excitement and shouting involved, but just as before, the blue-eyed boy seemed completely impervious to all of it. He looked over his shoulder once, and frowned in Rin's general direction, but if he'd seen or recognized him he gave no sign of it. It was too bright to tell.

" _Rin!_ "

He started violently and nearly tripped over himself. "Wha—what? I'm sorry, what?"

Gou groaned, exasperated. "My god, I've been saying your name for three minutes, oniichan. What's going on up in that empty head o' yours, huh?" She reached up to flick his forehead, and he smacked her hand away.

"I have to go now, Rin-senpai," explained Nitori much more courteously, looking slightly embarrassed. "My cousins are coming over."

"Oh—right," said Rin, struggling for words. He felt bad, suddenly, realizing he'd barely said anything worthwhile to his friend over the course of, what, more than two hours? He rubbed the back of his neck. "I, uh...I'll see you later then, yeah?"

"Right," Nitori agreed. "I had fun today. Thanks for inviting me, Gou-chan."

"Yeah, of course. I had to get my idiot brother out of house somehow, didn't I?"

He laughed, and they exchanged another set of goodbyes before Nitori left. Gou rounded on Rin then, with an eager look on her face.

"See?" she said aggressively. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No," he agreed. "It was fine. You act like I hate all forms of socialization or something."

"With that personality, you might as well."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

Gou laughed at him, and only laughed harder when he began to argue but dissolved into a fit of coughing before he could form a sentence.

"Oh, man, oniichan," she muttered, still grinning. "Where would you be without me?"


End file.
